What Has Gotten Into J.R. Smith?

Knicks' Gunner on Fire, Thanks to Shot Selection

J.R. Smith has been outstanding during the Knicks' five-game win streak. Above, a Smith dunk against the Utah Jazz on March 9.
Reuters

By

Chris Herring

March 27, 2013 9:14 p.m. ET

In almost every way imaginable, Knicks guard J.R. Smith personifies the basketball term "chucker."

He is the kind of player who is gifted enough to make 30-foot shots—and crazy enough to take them. The ill-advised long-range attempts—which often draw the stone-faced ire of coach Mike Woodson—have become an accepted part of Smith's high-risk/high-reward game.

Lately, however, there has been hardly anything to gripe about with Smith's shot selection, which has been a key factor in the Knicks' five-game winning streak entering Wednesday's home game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

In that span—which began immediately after Smith had a brutal performance at the Los Angeles Clippers, where he shot 4-for-20 and launched five attempts of 27 feet or further—Smith has been a model for efficiency. His offensive game has shifted from one that settles for long, off-balance jumpers into one that is predicated on getting to the rim.

Smith has often scored using the sort of me-against-the-world style that would make basketball purists cringe. He has isolated—that is, gone one-on-one—38.9% of the time the past five games, according to Synergy Sports, a rate that would lead the NBA by a huge margin. And yet it is hard to argue with the results.

Smith's performance in Tuesday's Knicks win in Boston, in which he scored 32 points and took 15 of his 24 shots from the paint, illustrated the recent overhaul to his game.

"They didn't really have any shot blockers," said the 6-foot-6 Smith, who had played four straight games against teams that were either poor at shot-blocking or were missing their top shot blocker. So, he said, his approach was "take it to the basket, draw fouls, find teammates that are open, and go from there."

Of the 79 shots Smith has taken since the loss to the Clippers, 37 of them (47%) have come from inside the paint. By contrast, he was taking 26% from that area before Knicks' five-game win streak, according to Stats LLC. As such, he has reduced his average shot distance by 24%, from 17 feet 7 inches before the win streak to 13 feet 4 inches during the span.

Smith's recent aggression on offense isn't unprecedented: He shot the ball from 13 feet 2 inches away on average during a five-game span in mid-December 2009, when he was similarly mired in a long-distance slump, according to Stats. (Smith made just 23% of his three-point attempts in that stretch—slightly worse than the 26% he has hit in this one.)

But this past week has seen Smith combine that attack mentality with a sustained level of efficiency the 27-year-old, nine-year veteran has never displayed before. He has generated 1.10 points per possession on an average of 20.6 offensive plays a night the past five games, according to Synergy Sports.

To put that level of efficiency in perspective, only two players—most-valuable player candidates Kevin Durant (1.11 points per play on 25.5 possessions a game) and LeBron James (1.10 on 24.1 possessions a game)—average those sorts of numbers nightly basis.

There could yet be further dividends to Smith's aggressive style of play. By going to the basket more—which subconsciously prompts defenders to back off in order to limit his driving—Smith could create space for the kinds of open jump shots he thrives on. Smith shoots 47.2% when he is left unguarded in catch-and-shoot situations, according to Synergy—far better than the 31.7% of jumpers he makes when there is a hand in his face.

"He's gotten better at mixing it up as of late," said Woodson, who watched Smith attempt 40 three-pointers over three games in February. "He's hasn't been one-dimensional. He's shooting free throws and becoming a (complete), all-around shooting guard. And that's what we need him to be."

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